April 2003
Virginia has passed legislation that makes fraudulent spammers criminally liable. The law was apparently inspired by an FTC report that 66 percent of spam contains a fraudulent claim. The report, which I can’t seem to find, analyzed 1,000 emails from... more
I took my eleventh law school exam today. Number twelve happens tomorrow.... more
MouseMiles is a utility / art project (mostly art project) that records the distance that you move your mouse (nothing to install, just open a pop-up window). The program keeps track of the vertical, horizontal, and total distance that the... more
I checked out the grand opening of the brand new Back Bay Shaw’s yesterday. I don’t know why I get excited about new supermarkets opening, but I do. Plus, in these final days before exams, there’s not much else going... more
The phrase, “Vulcan mind melt” is used way too often in law school. What is a Vulcan mind melt? Is that melting someone's mind or getting inside someone's mind?... more
EPIC has announced its privacy threat index “to track the growing threat to privacy resulting from the expansion of government surveillance.” (pr) (via Life, Law, Libido) One cool thing about this is that the image is hosted at EPIC, so... more
Bank of America has introduced the “Mini Card”. It’s like a regular credit card but smaller. The idea is that it attaches to your key ring like one of those little supermarket cards. How convenient? It works in slide-style machines,... more
Fans of the band Creed (muhahaha) are bring a class-action suit against the band for failing to “substantially perform” when the lead singer “was so intoxicated and/or medicated that he was unable to sing the lyrics of a single Creed... more
It’s Patriots Day in Massachusetts, and I’d say it’s one of the better holidays around here. I happen to live very close to the Boston Marathon route, so there are all sorts of people milling about in the street. The... more
I checked out a local bluegrass band at a pub this evening. Afterward, conversation turned to the sociological and geological merits of various mountain ranges. The Appalachians may have music, religion, and culture, but I still gaze in awe at... more
Whenever I watch TV I get very annoyed at the car commercials. It seems like there are a lot more car commercials than there used to be, and they’re hardly ever creative. (And I’ve never been in the market for... more
I've been working on some significant changes to this site over the last few days. I think I'm finally finished. Obviously, the site is at a new domain: andrewsinclair.org, but the real updates have been technological. I'm running Moveable Type... more
There are posters around my neighborhood and BU asking for information to find missing BU professor John Daverio. It seems Professor Daverio just disappeared one night. The last sighting of him was the footage from the security camera in the... more
This summer marks the first (to my knowledge) proper English-style music festival on the east coast of the United States. We’ve had touring festivals and radio-station sponsored one-day festivals, but the Field Day Festival is more along the lines of... more
The truth about Andrew Sinclair: (an email from a friend) Ok, before I forget, I have to tell you about this dream I had. Basically, you were this psycho serial killer who was killing law school girls, and for some... more
Another silly "What _____ are you?" quiz. I don't know why I take these, especially because the results of this one only insult me. I was hoping to get the Korg Z1, the synth I actually own, but I got... more
"Here comes the story of a... Google update." Update Cassandra is underway. Some people are so obsessed with Google that they've taken to naming each update as though it were a hurricane. (You may have to register to view that... more
There’s a famous patent case that involves the Super Soaker water gun that I recently read for my IP survey course. I think I was close to the ideal water fight age when the Super Soaker was introduced, and I’ve... more
I found an absurd discussion of the war between Lemons and Limes because they’re using my picture of limes from the Haymarket Gallery (see link on the right). I’m not really that protective of my copyrights, but it does annoy... more
Yesterday the weather reporter announced his forecast for today’s “snizzle” (snow and drizzle combination). It looks like his forecast was accurate. Moving past the fact that it should not be snowing in April, I’d like to take this opportunity to... more
I handed in the third draft of my “note” yesterday. This paper has been haunting me all year, and will continue to do so until I finally satisfy BU’s “upper-class writing requirement”. I don’t think I should have to do... more
On the subject of rankings, I’m working on a paper right now that lead me to the National Trust website in search of sources (the paper is on the preservation of sculptural works). It’s not new(s), but the 11 Most... more
The new US News Law School rankings came out the other day. Sadly, BU has dropped to #28 (from last year’s #25), but how sadly? I really don’t care that much what US News thinks of BU anymore. Someone yesterday... more
What does Baghdad look like? On television and in movies you never actually get to see what a place looks like. This is the only reason for watching Hideous Kinky, which shows you quite a bit of Morocco at the... more
To me April 1 is a haunting reminder that I’m in my final month of job searching before the summer begins (yes, we’re getting out shockingly and awfully early this year). It’s also a reminder that the rent is due... more